I drove 200 miles (one way) for a race at Donaldson Center Industrial Air Park in Greenville, South Carolina today. Sponsored by Hincapie Sports (that’s George Hincapie, Lance Armstrong’s chief lieutenant for all of his seven Tour de France wins), this is the fifth year of the series. A few years ago the fields were small and tight. Bicycle racing popularity has dramatically influenced field size – meaning more racers for each category.

Even the women’s field was full today.

Alright – the loop around the airport is six-something miles. Lots of wind and a couple of decent climbs make the course tough … with wind, but not so much if the wind isn’t blowing. Today it was howling at 20+mph. Blah. I started on the line at the right and quickly moved my happy ass to the first corner in the front. I had no intention of dealing with a full field, navigating the first turn of the first race of the season. Oops, the freakin race computer didn’t work. Ergo – I had only my heart rate monitor to refer to for “data.”

Somewhere nearing the 3/4 portion of the first loop a couple of guys jumped — I did too. The peloton picked us up quickly. The race continued and three guys went — I did too. The third surge was met with more guys than the last. The fourth surge and two of us were away … swept up within a 1/2 mile. Again the field surged (each time into the wind, not with the wind) it was becoming harder because there was no true recovery between surges. Near the section where the wind switched from “in your face” to “at your back” a group of two went hard. They moved away very quickly.

Ok. We’re (the field) now shooting it out for third place unless we catch them. (I doubted that because David Grice from Hearn’s Smith Barney was one of the two).

The field pushed hard on the second loop near the first climb … and the front of the field surged again. With the wind howling in our faces – someone kicked it one mo’ time near the top. Thanks goodness I was near the front otherwise I would have been dropped. (Yet another reason to be in the front!) I had very little ump in my thump, but somewhere in my heart rate monitor I saw some room to go with them. I’m glad I did. We were first a group of four – then five – then six – and me seven; we time trailed into the wind and within one mile we had a :40 gap. “FuckinA!”

I think we wanted to break away – more so because it was safer – and secondarily because we knew we’d have a better chance of placing if we gapped the field. I kept looking at the heart rate monitor, and it read ‘high’ numbers. At 92% (of max) there wasn’t much room. I wasn’t breathing hard, but the lactic acid in my legs made them feel like lead. I kept telling myself it didn’t matter … this was a first race … “it  doesn’t matter!” i.e., no points for USCF ratings, so I dug in way deep.

On the fourth lap, the two guys in front of us were 1:20 and the field behind us was 1:20. The time gaps (front and rear) stayed pretty much the same for the remainder of the race. Three guys attempted to gap from the field to us but we re-grouped and rotated pretty hard for a couple of miles before they got sucked back into the field. It was a hard race – especially because I had not trained (yet) in those heart rate zones (90 to 95% of max).

My mind kept struggling with WHY? And WHY was I doing this – how crazy is this??!! I mean, you can be fit by riding your bike and hitting the weights a couple days per week. BUT you will not be super-fit if you don’t train to race – and then race when you can. And the real answer to WHY is this: the season is VERY long. It starts in February and we continue racing through September.

RECAP First race: Donaldson Center Road Course — average speed 23.8 — average heart rate 154 — touched the max heart rate twice — finished 8th. Out of 54. (and it was a three-way tie between 6,7,8 and I was on the outside of the camera so I got the number 8. The guy on inside got the 6 and the guy in the middle who truly was 6 got 7 — so I’m way-ok with where I finished. We dropped the damn field and that felt good.)

Good day, good first race. Ride on.